The present invention generally relates to an integrated circuit (IC) card, IC card information display device, an IC card reader/writer and an IC card system, and more particularly relates to an IC card, IC card information display device, IC card reader/writer and IC card system for successively accessing and displaying information about a plurality of applications (such as electronic money information and premium point information) from a common IC card.
Recently, so-called premium point plans (e.g., frequent use/purchase plans, frequent flyer plans) are gaining wide acceptance. They work as follows. Every time a user buys merchandise and/or utilizes a service at a participating business (e.g., retailer), such business awards the user premium points which correspond to the amount of the purchase/use, and appropriate premium point information is recorded on a suitable medium. When a sufficient amount of premium points has accumulated, the user subsequently swaps the same for a product/service of matching value. Such plans are intended to encourage customers to repeat their purchases or use of a specific business, e.g., company or chain of stores. The trouble is that such plans are offered by many businesses using magnetic cards, plastic wallet cards, etc., and a customer enrolled in a plurality of plans is forced to carry many so-called point cards specific to the businesses they frequent, thus representing a large inventory of cards which take up substantial space within a user""s wallet. As a further disadvantage, often these dedicated cards must be read by dedicated display devices (e.g., located within a retailer""s place of business) using dedicated programs, thus making it inconvenient for a user to check the status of his/her card.
Meanwhile, as discussed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 3-92966, studies have been under way to implement totally xe2x80x9ccashlessxe2x80x9d commercial transactions through the use of an IC card storing electronic money, IC card apparatuses and an IC card system.
A system of interest in the present disclosure involves getting specifically designated amount information written to a memory in an IC card, with such amount information representing, in essence, electronic money. When a customer is to settle a purchase, the necessary amount information is deducted and transmitted from the customer""s IC card to the system, whereby the transaction is completed without the intervention of cash.
Turning now to problems to be solved by the invention, if such an electronic IC card money system is implemented for settling commercial transactions, it is also possible to have the IC cards used by the system to also carry other diverse applications and data along with an electronic money application and data, i.e., it is possible to have a multi-application IC card. This means that other information such as the above-mentioned dedicated programs and premium point information may also be stored in the IC card. If a new application is added to the IC card, the display device also needs to have a new display control program added thereto. To accommodate loading/unloading of diverse programs, the display device must be equipped with a flash memory or like function to deal with that need.
However, problems have been found in attempting to implement a multi-application IC card system. More particularly, portable remote terminals such as a low-cost IC card reader have only limited functions including a display panel and keys. As such, these terminals may be incapable of separately displaying multiple kinds of application information or allowing users to select desired application information. Further, even if a reader is capable of allowing a user to select between multiple kinds of application information, a user has to separately access multiple dedicated programs (e.g., often requiring entry of respective passwords) in order for the user to review basic personal information (e.g., electronic money account balance, frequent flyer milage, accumulated premium points) from each of the application programs. This is inconvenient and time consuming.
The objection of the present invention is to provide a multi-application IC card, IC card display device, IC card reader/writer and IC card system, wherein select information (e.g., balance amounts) can be easily and conveniently accessed/displayed without having to access/utilize separate application specific programs.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement wherein even IC card readers and IC card reader/writers not having a specific application program matching a specific application provided on a multi-application IC card, can still access/display select information pertaining to that application.
Further, it is an object to supply such arrangement for use even with an inexpensive IC card reader display device, like a balance indicator which is small and has limited functions.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the above and other deficiencies of the art and to provide a unique and novel multi-application IC card, IC card reader, IC card reader/writer and IC card system with easy and convenient multi-application information reading capabilities. In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there is provided an IC card having memory, including: a first memory area in which respective application information for a plurality of applications is stored as data which is each readable/writable by an application program corresponding to the application information; and a second memory area in which predetermined portions of the application information is stored as data in a predetermined form which is readable by a predetermined common program; wherein the predetermined portions stored in the second memory area are created on a basis of the application information stored in the first memory area.
Preferably, the plurality of kinds of balance information may be stored in the IC card as character code information in a standardized format, and the display may display information corresponding to the character code information. Furthermore, the balance information may be stored in specific areas such as a directory file, an answer-to-reset file, or elementary files in the IC card.
As outlined above, a single IC card according to the invention allows a user to keep a single IC card containing information about a plurality of applications such as electronic money information and premium point information. A display device according to the invention allows the user to select and display information about any one of the multiple applications stored in the IC card. When display data (i.e., character, numeric, etc. data) are stored in predetermined areas of the IC card in a standardized format, a functionally limited display device such as a balance indicator may be used to acquire and display necessary application information from the IC card using a simplified control procedure. A common control program need only be used to display information about diverse applications. When a new application is additionally stored into the IC card, the same control program of the display device may still be used to display information about the newly added application. The inventive display device is thus capable of addressing information about a plurality of applications without using a flash memory or the like that has been required by comparable display devices.